Wildfire Smoke Increases Risk for Dementia

⏰ Doomsday Clock One Tick Closer to Midnight

78 years ago, scientists created the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic attempt to gauge how close humanity is to destroying the world. Last Tuesday, the clock was set forward one more second, at 89 seconds to midnight. That is the closest the world has ever been to that marker. The reason why the clock was pushed closer to midnight is because scientists have not seen sufficient, positive progress on global challenges such as nuclear risk, climate change, and advances in disruptive technologies such as AI. Although the clock is not a definitive measure of existential threats, it does spark conversations about difficult scientific topics such as climate change and serves as a wake up call to remind people about the cascading crises our planet faces and that actions need to be taken to try and prevent the Earth from someday becoming uninhabitable.

Kristen Rogers, CNN

🧠 Wildfire Smoke Increases Risk for Dementia

As the Earth’s climate changes, wildfires are becoming a bigger problem. In the western United States, wildfires are becoming a common source of airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5, a type of air pollution that has been linked to an increased risk of dementia. The National Institutes of Health funded a research team to compare the links between exposure to PM2.5 from wildfire to other sources and new cases of dementia. Using health records of more than 1.2 million southern California members aged 60+ between 2008-2019 and air quality, wildfire, and weather data along with PM2.5 concentrations from 2006-2019, scientists concluded that for every 1 ug/m3 increase in average wildfire PM2.5, the odds of receiving a dementia diagnosis increased by 18%. The same increase in PM2.5 from other sources was associated with only a 1% increase of a dementia diagnosis. The findings suggest that PM2.5 from wildfires is a greater risk factor for dementia than other sources, and may be more pronounced among socially and economically disadvantaged groups such as Asian and non-Hispanic Black people.

Brian Doctrow, NIH

🌲 Green-tech Startup Creates Carbon Credits in Forests

A green-tech startup based in Munich, Germany called OCELL recently secured another 10 million in funds to further develop its AI-powered platform for creating high-quality carbon credits. The credits support climate-optimized forest management, significantly increasing carbon storage in forests and promoting biodiversity as well as the urgently needed transformation of forests for greater climate resilience. By processing aerial imagery and terrestrial forest data, OCELL uses AI to create digital twins of forests which provide insights into forest growth, current carbon storage capacity, and other metrics. Their program then allows for the prediction and implementation of climate-optimized forest management strategies to store more carbon in the long term. OCELL currently manages over 810,000 acres of forest, which can absorb an extra 1.62 million tons of CO2 equivalent each year. They have agreements for over 100,000 carbon credits already secured.

Vigneshwar Ravichandran, Silicon Canals